“Take it, spend it wherever you like, it s yours,” Duggan said at an afternoon news conference. “You will be handed it on site as soon as the person with you gets their shot.
“Then, if you come back for the second shot, you get another $50 card. So just bring them back.”
In a city with the state’s lowest vaccine rates, Duggan called the program “uncharted territory.”
The “neighbor” who stands to financially benefit does not need to be a Detroit resident, but the person brought in for a vaccine must live in the city, under the terms of the program.
The Christmas tree lighting ceremony on the day after Thanksgiving is an annual event for families in this traditionally blue-collar town, typically attracting at least 1,500 people. But this year, Dave Clements, who oversees the tree lighting, was not happy to see families pile out of vehicles and head into the park. Most wore masks and kept their distance, but for Clements, there were too many people amid a pandemic.
The 61-year-old retired electrical contractor had asked that there be no public celebration in 2020. Outside gatherings of more than 25 people had already been banned by the state to curb the coronavirus, an order that especially made sense in places like Bay City, which was being hammered by the pandemic.